Rolling of long products - Semi-finished and finished products

Following the development of continuous casting at the end of the 20th century, most of the products fed into finishing mills come directly from continuous casting. This eliminates a rolling stage traditionally carried out on a blooming mill, which transformed ingots into semi-finished products fed into finishing mills.

However, for certain products, ingot casting and blooming remain necessary to ensure the quality of the finished products.

Blooms and billets (square or, more rarely, round in cross-section), produced by blooming or continuous casting, are reheated and fed into medium bar mills or wire mills to produce finished products.

This article outlines the various stages involved in manufacturing semi-finished and finished products, and describes the equipment used and its performance. The techniques used for finishing and quality control of manufactured products are also presented.

To supplement this article, other aspects of long product rolling are discussed in:

• [M 7 900]  Rolling of long products. Definitions and parameters;

• [M 7 901]  Rolling of long products. Cages and trains;

• [M 7 903]  Rolling of long products. Rolls, calibration, defects, and economic data.